“The public may post information on some utility poles if the postings follow regulations outlined in Article 5.6 of the Public Works Code. The law was adopted to ensure that flyers posted on public property do not contribute to litter or blight. Illegal postings in the public right of way may be removed by DPW’s Bureau of Street Environmental Services and are subject to fines from $100 to $500. Call 311 to report.

Signs are defined as any card, decoration, poster, campaign sign, or any object containing or bearing writing that is affixed, posted or fastened to a utility or light pole that is permanently attached to the street or sidewalk. Signs do not include handbills, banners or A-Frame boards. Bulletin boards designed for neighborhood postings are exempt from this regulation.

Signs attached to buildings and on private property are regulated by Part II Chapter I of the Building Code and violationsshould be reported to the Department of City Planning’s Code Enforcement or call 311 to report.

Tips for Legally Posting Signs on Public Property

To legally place a sign on a utility pole, it must:

Be less than 11 inches in height

No higher than 12 feet from the ground

Conform to the shape of the pole

Be attached with tape or other non-adhesive material such as twine, string or other non-metal banding material

Include a legible posting date in the lower right hand corner

Be removed after 10 days, if the sign is promoting a date specific event

The white truck on the left is parked on the sidewalk. The SFMTA “knows” this because a dozen SFMTA-employed eyeballs have just passed by to see it. Yet, it didn’t get ticketed.

OTOH, the white car on the far right _did_ get a ticket, you can see it, for blocking a street sweeper on street sweeping day

These practices have developed over the years – they’re a culture.

If you ask somebody from the SFMTA about this sitch, they’d be all, well, call it in and we’ll come out and give it a ticket. (When SFGov doesn’t have the will to enforce its own rules, it says the whole process is “complaint driven.”)

Anyway, this is the culture, not that you’d find it officially documented anywhere…

…and here’s a 14 year old San Jose Mercury News report on the same group at the same location:

They’ve become part of the landscape on Geary and Laguna. Every morning they wave and say, “Good morning,” to the San Francisco police officer on duty, Xu said. Every evening, they say, “Good night.” They are so familiar with the postal carrier they know when a substitute is walking the route and greet both warmly.

Across the street, a San Francisco police officer sits in his vehicle, reading a paper. The cops hardly think a dozen old people and mothers with kids in tow are a threat to the People’s Republic of China, but as a matter of policy, the police dispatch an officer whenever there is a demonstration in front of the consulate.

The officer on the scene may change, but one keeps in contact with the protesters and the consulate: officer Jeff Roth, the event coordinator at Northern Station, which handles more than a few consulates because the district straddles the Western Addition, Pacific Heights and the Marina.

“They aren’t happy about it, but they don’t really have a say in the matter,” Roth said of the consulate officials.

Other protests — over Tibet and the like — have brought requests from the consulate in the past for police to stop protesters, Roth said. “We’ve explained, ‘Yes, the consulate is Chinese property, but this is America — the protesters have their First Amendment rights.'”

I’ll tell you, it’s not my habit to repost SJMN articles, but this one appears to have gone missing. If somebody can find an official link, please send it my way, by all means. (I hope it’s archived somewhere – it’s a bit surprising to me how it’s been lost in the sands of time after just 14 years.

In the meantime, this is my best guess as to how this article appeared back at the turn of the century:

So if you see a bus that has a different code than what you see here, take a photo and send it in to the email address you see on the top of this blog. Or really, I don’t need a photo, I just need to know the Pilot Program ID number and then the “Operated By” info on the side of the ride.

Then I’ll look into things and then post an updated list complete with the highest bus number observed and then I’ll post it for tout le monde to see. (I don’t know why the SFMTA considers this info so supr secrt but it does.)

And of course, if you have some big beef against some bus, what you’re supposed to do is call 311 and then tell them the five-digit code so they can take action, if necessary. That’s the system, baby.